Telford Street Park
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Telford Street Park was a football ground in Inverness,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. It was the home ground of Caledonian F.C. and latterly Caledonian Thistle F.C.


History

Caledonian played at the
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Caledonian Park until the mid-1920s, when Telford Street Park was built. A fire destroyed the original stand in 1950, and a new one was built. A merger between the three Inverness clubs (Caledonian, Clachnacuddin and
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), who all played in the Highland Football League, had long been mooted. The proposal gained momentum in 1993, when the Scottish Football League (SFL) announced it would expand its membership by two clubs and would look more favourably on a joint Inverness bid than if each individual club applied. At the same time, Caledonian had received an offer of £750,000 from
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for Telford Street Park. The club wanted to replace their ground with a new all-seater stadium that would require government funding, but the authorities indicated their preference for a facility to be used by a merged club. Despite clear opposition from most of the supporters, the directors of Caledonian and Thistle pressed ahead with a merger proposal. The new club, which was initially called Caledonian Thistle, gained SFL membership in 1994 and played its home games at Telford Street Park. As part of its SFL membership bid, Caledonian Thistle had pledged to find a new ground by August 1995. The league granted an extension to August 1996, as the proposed new site required £900,000 of funding from Inverness District Council. The club threatened to resign from the SFL if the funding was not provided, but it was authorised by a 14-12 majority in December 1995. The new
Caledonian Stadium Caledonian Stadium is a football ground in the Longman area of Inverness, Scotland, near the banks of the Moray Firth. It hosts home matches of Scottish Professional Football League club Inverness Caledonian Thistle. History Inverness Cal ...
was opened in 1996 and Telford Street Park was demolished to make way for a retail park.


References

; Sources * Sports venues completed in 1926 Defunct football venues in Scotland Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. Sports venues in Inverness Scottish Football League venues Sports venues demolished in 1996 Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom 1926 establishments in Scotland 1996 disestablishments in Scotland Caledonian F.C. {{Scotland-sports-venue-stub